First of all, let me welcome you to the City under Microscope in Toulouse, organised by the City of Toulouse and LUCI, the international network of cities on urban lighting.

On this occasion, I am very happy to welcome you for two days and three nights of discussions on urban lighting, which will be the opportunity to shine a light on all the innovation talents of Toulouse, known as la Ville Rose – “the Pink City”.

Toulouse, the fourth largest city in France, home to Airbus and the birthplace of aviation, is also known for its unique quality of life, culture and historical heritage, including the oldest basilica in the world.
Our city is renowned for its industrial dynamism and an ecosystem of start-ups specialised in embedded intelligence, one of the essential building blocks of the space industry.

In recent years, our public lighting engineers have developed an embedded intelligence system that serves the population. Set up in conjunction with a local start-up, this public lighting device based on form detection has created several jobs and offers great prospects for the smart city.

We now have public lighting that, while reducing power consumption, leads to a conceptual breakthrough in the daily management of the city. This new urban tool that everyone could use, outlines a major evolution that will open pathways not only to a more collaborative economy offering better services to citizens, but also to a better prospective urban planning and to potential new sources of income for our cities.

In this context, I wish that a constructive dialogue and debate on this crucial topic may be established in a spirit of global sharing of experience and in the perspective of having, by 2030, a city which is intelligently connected to its users.
Finally, I would like to invite you to the inauguration of one of our latest heritage lighting initiatives.

Wishing you a fruitful and constructive dialogue,